Technological fatigue. Narcissism anxiety. A galaxy of isolation. These are the new norms keeping Weyes Blood (aka Natalie Mering) up at night and the themes at the heart of her latest release, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow (Sub Pop Records). 

The album is her follow-up to the acclaimed Titanic Rising. (Pitchfork, NPR, The Guardian admiringly named it one of 2019’s best.)  Where Titanic was an observation of doom to come, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is about being in the thick of it: a search for an escape hatch to liberate us from algorithms and ideological chaos. “We’re in a fully functional shit show,” Mering says. “My heart is a glow stick that’s been cracked, lighting up my chest in an explosion of earnestness.”

And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow opens with the wistful, winsome “It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody” — about the interconnectivity of all beings, but also the fraying of society around us. “I was asking a lot of questions while writing these songs. Hyper isolation kept coming up,” Mering says. “Our culture relies less and less on people. Something is off, and even though the feeling appears differently for each individual, it is universal.”

Other tracks follow in kind. The lullaby-like “Grapevine” chronicles the splintering of a human connection. The otherworldly dirge “God Turn Me into a Flower” serves as an allegory about our collective hubris. “The Worst Is Done” is an ominous warning, set against a deceivingly breezy pop melody. 

“Chaos is natural. But so is negentropy, or the tendency for things to fall into order,” she says. “These songs may not be manifestos or solutions, but I know they shed light on the meaning of our contemporary disillusionment.”

Sound & Color – the follow-up to Alabama Shakes’ Gold-certified debut album, Boys & Girls, which earned the group three GRAMMY® nominations, including a nod for Best New Artist – will be released in North America on April 21 by ATO Records. Rough Trade will release the album in the UK/Europe on April 20. 

Sound & Color demonstrates the tremendous strides made by Alabama Shakes since the release of 2012’s Boys & Girls. From the gently swaying, chiming title song to the garage-rock freak-out on “The Greatest” to the psychedelic space jam “Gemini,” Alabama Shakes build on the soulful blues-rock base and map a surprising, innovative new direction. 

“We took our time to write this record, and I’m really glad we did,” says lead singer/guitarist Brittany Howard. “We were able to sit down and think about what’s exciting to us. This record is full of genre-bending songs.”

Sound & Color was recorded at Nashville’s Sound Emporium studio. The band co-produced the album with Blake Mills—a young guitar wizard who has helmed sessions by Sara Watkins and Sky Ferreira, and played alongside everyone from Norah Jones and the Dixie Chicks to Lana Del Ray and Kid Rock. 

The success of Boys & Girls paved the way for Alabama Shakes – comprising lead singer/guitarist Brittany Howard, guitarist Heath Fogg, bassist Zac Cockrell, drummer Steve Johnson, and touring keyboard players Ben Tanner and Paul Horton – to become one of the most celebrated live acts in the world, as they delivered unforgettable performances everywhere from “Saturday Night Live” to the main stages of festivals like Bonnaroo and Glastonbury. Boys & Girls charted in the Top 10 in both the U.S. and the U.K. and "Hold On," the Gold-certified lead single, was voted the #1 Best Song of 2012 by Rolling Stone.


Medulla Oblongata frequently played live all around the NoVa and DC region in the late 80's/early 90's. Little was recorded, so these are rare and dusty nuggets from the scraphole of time.

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